Astrophysics

Magnetic reconnection is ubiquitous in space and astrophysical plasmas rapidly converting magnetic field energy into plasma particles. Among numerous candidate kinetic mechanisms, ion acoustic instabilities driven by the relative drift between ions...

Abstract: The first quantum revolution brought us the great technological advances of the 20th century—the transistor, the laser, the atomic clock and GPS, the global positioning system.  We now realize that this 20th century hardware does not take...

Understanding galaxies and their evolution over time is critical for interpreting the stellar history and chemical enrichment of the Universe. Galaxies that lie at different distances help us fill in different pieces of the puzzle — from large...

The identity of dark matter remains a mystery, despite decades of theorizing and detection efforts. This includes the mechanism for its primordial production, its interactions with itself or with visible matter, and the very nature of dark matter...

High-energy-density experiments can provide insight into astrophysical processes, which are often observed from great distances under uncontrolled and unknown conditions. In order for an experiment to be well-scaled to an astrophysical process...

Low-metallicity massive stars shape the ISM and evolution of dwarf galaxies. Theory predicts that the evolution of these stars diverges significantly from their higher-metallicity counterparts, with important implications for stellar feedback and...

The discovery of thousands of new planetary candidates over the last decade has revolutionized the field of planet formation. One of Kepler's key findings is that the most abundant planets in our galaxy, observed to date, are larger than Earth but...